This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015
Still running a charity
When you consider that the folks who have been collecting our garbage in the county are now doing it county wide, all of those who were collecting the intown garbage are now just collecting the debris and recycling. Please keep in mind that the funds to do these projects are not coming from the mayor or the commission. I would argue that a large majority of Macon-Bibb County employees would be out of work if they were running a for profit company. Taxpayers are once again running a charity for Macon-Bibb County employees. Not only all of those folks, but their equipment too. Why did they not turn it all over to the private company?
When you figure the costs, fuel, maintenance, wages, management, uniforms, Social Security, insurance, retirement and equipment, the taxpayers are getting hit with higher fees and the dual management and workers. Guessing the cost, about $6 million-plus a year. What would the private company charge to do it all?
— Joe Hubbard
Macon
Secure the borders
I roundly agree with Dan Topolewski's take on controlling our borders when he opines in Monday's Opinion section "Just because something isn't expected, by some detractors, to be 100 percent successful, doesn't mean it isn't worth trying." I am reminded of a much older but analogous statement by Martin Luther, "Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object that is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun and moon and stars have been worshiped. Shall we pluck them out of the sky? Secure our borders now.
— Charles T. Wolf Jr.
Macon
Will there be another one?
I wish to commend Josh Barker for his excellent column submission on the possibility of a Constitutional Convention, and would encourage him to contact his school administrators about details for participating in the Rumbaugh Oration Contest for High School students, sponsored locally by the Ocmulgee Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
As the local contest committee chairman, I have contacted members of all the local public, private and home school administrators in central Georgia starting in early fall for the past several years with information about this annual National Association of Secondary School Principals sanctioned event, so it could be passed on to interested students. Unfortunately, the only participant we have had in our chapter contest has been a young man from Albany, who actually sought us out so he could locate and join a contest. He won the local and state contests each of the past three years and went on to compete at the national level. His efforts through the entire process won him high recognition and awards, and substantial remuneration each year as well. He has since graduated, and we are hoping for others to stand up and get involved in his stead.
I encouraged The Telegraph to publish an article submitted on behalf of our winning representative when he placed third in the national contest last year, as an example to local students. However, it was rejected by the editorial staff because he wasn't "of local interest." In light of that, I hope the Telegraph will publish this response to Barker's submission. His writing indicates that he would be a fine candidate for not only the oration contest, but our written essay contest as well. The publication of his essay and this response may do what hasn't happened yet, to get the word out to our students regarding the contest, and motivate and encourage them ask their administrators for guidance on how to give it a try.
— Dan Topolewski
Kathleen
'Outrageous statement'
In an interview with CBS News yesterday on the murderous terrorist attack in San Bernandino CA, President Obama made the following comment: "We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world." How dare he make such an outrageous comment. He is basically saying the few mass shootings, defined as four or more people being involved in a shooting has no parallel to ISIS or al Queda who has murdered hundreds, indeed thousands of people, in mass shooting events. Has he forgotten that over 3,000 Americans were murdered on 9/11? Or the hundreds of Americans killed across the globe in mass suicide bombings and shootings at hotels, embassies and elsewhere not to mention the beheading of American citizens abroad? No, Mr. President, you are wrong, dead wrong, to have made such an outrageous comment.
Then, you used the CBS News interview as a political stump to again beat the drum of gun control completely ignoring the fact this was a Muslim couple that killed 14 people yesterday. Also, it is now known that the man traveled to Saudi Arabia, married a female terrorist, brought her back to America and committed this atrocity. How did that happen? Obviously, the woman traveled to America using her husband's name, not her real name so she didn't show up on any no fly list and they beat the immigration and customs screening. Indeed, there are far worse parallels to America. I am appalled and very disappointed that our president would make such an outrageous statement.
— Alan Gardner
Warner Robins
No better time
How easy it is for politicians and others to glibly say, "God Bless America" and "In God We Trust." It is hard to believe God blesses a nation that does nothing to stop the evil gun violence that pervades our land. Too many of us love guns, the Second Amendment and the National Rifle Association more than we love God and our neighbors. We are a sick nation. Greed, racism and gun violence are national diseases of epidemic proportions. These diseases are killing America. I pray that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
The world has known for centuries God wills all nations to turn our swords (guns, bombs) into plowshares (farming implements) in order to find peace and feed a hungry world. God does not force his will on us. It is up to us, the world's people, to initiate the peace measures that are based on God's transforming love.
Sunday, Dec. 6, is Peace Sunday on the Advent calendar. I cannot think of a better time to begin trusting the God we Americans say we trust.
— Paul L. Whiteley Sr.
Louisville, Ky.
Rep. Bishop backtracks
Congressman Sanford Bishop did the right thing recently when he and fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus publicly opposed construction of Sabal Trail, a 516-mile natural gas pipeline through Georgia, Alabama and Florida, based on the environmental and economic harm it would impose on already disenfranchised communities.
But this week, Bishop has undercut that by voting for the polluter-backed Congressional Review Act to block the Clean Power Plan, which puts the first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants.
Why the mixed message? With the nation's fastest growing solar market, Georgia is already primed to embrace a clean energy economy and comply with the CPP. The Taylor County Solar Facility, the largest solar development in the state, has created 2,000 new jobs and will bring in millions of dollars in revenue to the region.
Meanwhile, Plant Scherer in Juliette, has required costly environmental upgrades that puts upward pressure on electricity rates and retains the distinction of being the dirtiest coal plant in the nation.
Bishop's time would be better spent supporting a Georgia-made plan that cuts dangerous carbon pollution and continues to provide good, local jobs in the 2nd District.
— Heather Giroux
Macon
How many have to die?
OK America, I believe it is way past time to wake up. President Obama has an agenda and it isn't for betterment of this country. How many people have to die by the hands of radical Muslims before we do something? There are no George Washingtons in our current government, 99.9 percent of our elected officials will tell us what we want to hear and never make good on those words. Time for political correctness is gone. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck. If he or she or both act like terrorists and sound like terrorists they are.
ISIS or al Qaida are here in this country. The main tenets of Islam are "convert, subjugate or if those fail, destroy the infidels. Guess who we are? The infidels. We need to be proactive in this fight on terror. Bad guys, whether terrorists or run of the mill bad people, will always go for the soft targets. The suspects — 28-year-old Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik went for an area that doesn't allow firearms. How many more people have to die needlessly before we arm ourselves and eliminate areas that are no gun zones. This wasn't home grown terror this was imported terror. The guys wife had over stayed her visa, that should have raised some red flags. Now, 14 killed and 21 injured for no reason other than they are Americans.
— Wayne Overholt
Warner Robins
This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 ."